Today is a good day for me, even though I arrive a the shop in the afternoon. By now, they are asking me was I so late since I usually go there early in the morning. Ha ha.

Anyway, business is slow today, and so, we get to talk more about..... stuff. And then I get to see more about their.....stuff. And I am now, really hoping to get some money in. Why? Its simple. Circuit Boards. Normally, when you need to prototype a circuit, you do it on the stripboard. But the next stage after that is, well, the actual circuit board. And this is the problem.

You need to design and make one or a few prototypes before going full production. Really. Because if you did not, and there is a design mistake, you're talking about wasting a lot of good quality boards. Going to Pasar Road to get them do it for you could be very expensive or taking a long time since they could be oursourcing the job. And so, in the end, you have to DIY.

Two things I hate about making my own board is, one, you have to etch it yourself and this means dealing with chemicals which is toxic and permanently stains not only your clothes but the floor and everything around you. Second, you have to drill the holes out and keep replacing drill bits because they get blunt very fast by the fibreglass (since you're too cheap to by thos eultra expensive and brittle tungsten drill bits).

I do have some equipment but stopped after I *ahem* got married. And so, I think, its time to continue again.

This is a RM2,000 over UV exposure unit.

The difference between this and mine is that ithas a timer, the option to switch one or bothUV banks, and best of all....

... it has a vacuum pump to get the board andthe postive film to stick to the glass. Yes, thisone can do a double-sided PCB!

But I am not going to buy that since I alreadyhave a 1998 Rm750.00 version. Anyway, aquick one here. Once you expose the boardto the UV light, its time to develop the board

So, you add some developer chemical to thewater and shake the tub about until...... yes!

And this is the positive film for the PCB

And I am so in need of this etching tank. Morethan 10 years ago, I wanted someone to do itfor me but afraid that the silicon sealant mightreact with the etching solution and this willmake the tank leak over time. You do not wantthis to happen when you're away. Trust me. So,this model has the heater, agitator and comes in a compact form. They're testing this right nowand so far, so good. So they might be bringingit in a few months later.

But that's not the reason I was there. Justgetting to see it was a stroke of luck. I wasthere because of the need to get a spotlightwhich is not so hot until it heatrays a plasticmodel to oblivion.

And so, a MR16 LED spotlight is just the answer.Inside this are four 1watt Luxeon type LEDs andthe decorative metal enclosure is actually it veryown heatsink and air-flow vent.

You can use those normal MR16 connectors onthe LED spot but you have to remember, it canonly use 12 volts DC and not 240volts AC.

And I can tell you that it is very bright. Its likehaving a brand new Krypton Torchlight.

OK, so now you're going to ask, why the yellowishcolour as this white LEDs are supposed to be purewhite? The answer is, I chose WARM WHITE andnot PURE WHITE. Yes, there are a lot of shadesof white in the LEDs now, from warm to pure toslightly towards blue or yellow, etc.

After testing it for an hour or so, it does get warm. Nothot but warm and this is on a ventilated area. I do notwant to test it overnight with no ventilation conditionsas I do not want to wake up with a fire in there. Oh, itsbright and this is the exact brightness you see when Iwas in a room with no other lighting but a 6pm duskthrough the windows.

I noticed there is an extra reflector/lens in themiddle of the spot. And I think this is the onlyreason why there is a whitish yellow core.

And so, I got this E-mail sometime ago, once they cleared my things. And this time, there is no courier but just the normal USPS which I usually enjoy. That is, until today......

So, the email gave me a tracking number and tells meto go to this site to track the you know what.

And so, just to pass the time, I entered the detailsof the you know what, given by you know who sothat I can track it to you know where.

Aaaaaannnndd, they send it on April 6th and fourdayslater, it arrived at Los Angeles

In another four days, it arrived at you know whereand got in to the trouble at the place which cannotbe named. Here, the last update on my email in theafternoon tells me when I got the you know what andwhen it was cleared by you know who. Yeah, theyused on-line system to feed back to USPS.

And so, on the 15th, I got a call from them.They would not tell me what the damagesare as I need to go all the way there to getit. Haih. Unlike the courier it was so simple.

The funny thing was, I needed to goall the way to the Pos Depot.......

... to get a letter telling me that the you know whatis stuck at the place which cannot be named and Ihave to go there to see you know who to get theyou know what.

My Bengmobile was scared of these environmentalwalkers who happened to you know, walked out fromnowhere.......

The process at the place that cannotbe named, even though has this charton the wall is not that simple. Anyway,over there, I get to see a confiscatedAirsoft Rifle and a very patient gweilowith an impatient taxi waiting outside.

Speaking of which, I was afraid to go to theplace which cannot be named because of thetires. Yeah, its time to change them and Iwill, come next month. Need to get my oldBoss to tell me where he got the new set offour tires for the Hyundai for about RM600even after he traded in the sports rims.

The rear is not so bad but they need to be changedas well. But before all this, I might need to increasethe height of the suspensions for the front and also,repair the ones at the back. Or maybe, save up fora new set because the back ones are really gone.